A Key Demographic for Wine Sales Growth?

Wine folks love to talk about the Millennials ad nauseam and how they're changing the wine industry. Occasionally someone will mention that most winemakers and executives are white males. This, of course, isn't a problem just in the wine industry. They might even wonder why the Black American market hasn't been tapped. Well, there's another market that warrants consideration.

Reynoldo Robledo, immigrant and founder of Robledo Family Winery, Sonoma

Hispanics and Latinos make up 18% of the U.S. population and are the largest ethnic minority. Where are they in the wine world? Mostly working in the vineyards and wine cellars. Certainly not many are consumers or premium wine. I see that in the tasting room where the vast majority of customers are Caucasian followed by Asian Americans.

Perhaps the younger generation of Latinos/Hispanics will discover the heritage of the Spanish and wine in the country. Perhaps because so many of them are tied to the wine industry they will become consumers. There are certainly opportunities to market wine to them. Why do this? They will be one-quarter of the U.S. population in 25 years.